Sunday, August 7, 2011

Big Fat Juicy Plug!!!

Today while doing my HTS 7% I started coughing and could taste that something nasty was being brought up from my lungs. Low and behold the biggest fattest juiciest plug in all of history came out of my lungs! It was HUGE and LONG and had a bunch of little arms which I believe were plugging all the surrounding airways.

Is this the plug that was causing me so much pain?! If it was I can see why because it was a monster! The only reason I am not 100% convinced is because last night after swimming and doing my treatments I was in bed and could feel something in my right lobe moving or dislodging itself. I couldn't cough it out, but it definitely felt like a plug moving. I had NEVER coughed out a plug until about 11 months ago after my honeymoon (I think from the salty ocean air) and now I get mini plugs (the tiny tiny ones that are really hard, but oh so small) about once a week and have gotten at least 5 big ones!

I seriously cannot explain the joy and thrill of coughing these out! I feel like my lungs are reopening and I am breathing better everyday. How is this happening you ask? What is the secret?! No, I am not "lucky" and it is not a miracle or a secret, but it IS 100% DUE TO EXERCISE! Specifically swimming because I have exercised in the past and never gotten plugs out. I also have to contribute the plug expelling to airway clearance because of course this plug would not have been coughed out if I was not doing my airway clearance.

I have not felt this good since...I can't even remember! Sometimes when I take a deep breath in I feel like I can breath in "forever" as if my airways never stop. Mind you, I only have an FEV1 of 54% so it is not like I really can and a lot of you CFers probably breath better than I do. But the contrast of how I felt before to how I feel now makes me feel invincible!

Okay, nobody like a braggy post so I am done. FYI I took a pic of my plug is anyone is brave enough to see it. Now if you are reading this GO EXERCISE!!!!

4 comments:

Yay!! That is so excited (: Those little hard things are plugs? I get those pretty frequently, there so gross! Besides that I've never coughed one up, but then again I was never one for working till this last week. I finally jumped back on that bandwagon and am going to buckle down and try to work out my lungs. I am not okay with my base line being 48% I'll only be happy when it's back in the 50's (:

Yes, plugs are the GROSS hard mucus that (for me) can range from as small as a big granule of salt to almost a 1/2 inch long. If you are getting plugs out with exercise you must be doing something right so keep it up!!

BTW: My lung function was in the mid-high 40s for almost 6 years and through exercise and HTS I have recently gotten it back to 54%(let's hope it stays)so I am confident you will see 50 again!